Banks and other financial institutions utilize a web interface system for providing a web site through which the financial institutions customers may obtain with online web access to their accounts.
The typical architecture 200 utilized for providing a Bank's consumer customers with online account access is as shown in FIG. 1. The architecture 200 generally comprises a plurality of web servers 210 providing an online user interface to customers. The web servers 210 are staged in what is typically known as a demilitarized zone (DMZ) 206 such that customers, operating a web browser on a client computer system 204, may establish a secure connection to the web servers 210 over the public internet 202.
Generally the web servers 210 form a front-end facade for a secure application server 212. The secure application server 212 drives the web servers 210 to provide web pages to each client system 204 for purposes of authenticating the user of the client system 204 and, once authenticating, enabling the user to access their accounts and perform the various functions supported by the web application server 212.
The secure application server 212 is staged within a secure network 208 and, through such network 208, may interface with the banks' back end systems 214. The back end systems 214 may include systems which control user authentication and systems which hold and manage the account data. Data obtained from back end systems 214 may be populated into web pages provided to the client system 204 and transactions initiated through a client system 204 may be validated by the web application server 214 and input to the bank end systems 214. The interfaces between the web application server 212 and the bank back end systems 214 (e.g. file formats and data schema) may be proprietary in nature.
For purposes of implementing a bank's consumer web site, the secure application server 212 may be, or may be similar to, a typical Automated Teller Machine (ATM) application server. For that reason the functions that can be accessed through the bank's consumer web site are typically limited to those functions that are supported by a typical ATM application. Traditional examples include viewing account balances, viewing statements, and transferring funds between accounts. More recent additions that have become common include initiating Automated Clearing House (ACH) debit and credit transactions to accounts held by other financial institutions.
Within the financial industry there exist many types of financial transactions that most banks do not support through their consumer web sites. The International Organization for Standardization developed ISO 20022 which defines a Universal Financial Industry Messaging Scheme (UNIFI). UNIFI comprises a standardize XML syntax for a vast quantity of standard financial transactions ranging from foreign payment transactions, local and state tax payment transactions, securities trade and settlement transactions, and etcetera.
In most cases, it is not cost effective for a bank to “build out” its web application server 212 of its consumer web site to support diverse financial transaction types because the volume of usage would be too low to justify the build out costs. For example, even domestic wire transactions, which are only occasionally used by consumer customers, are not typically supported by a bank's consumer web site.
What is needed is a system and method that enables a bank's customers to execute transactions that are not supported by the bank's web application server (e.g. supplemental transactions) in a seamless manner. What is needed is a system and method that enables a bank to make transaction types available to its customers through the bank's website application server even though such transactions are not of a type that can be created and validated by the bank's web application server.